Preparing To Search The

Internet
Helping Students Search
Effectively
Surfing is not
searching.

Computers download information
They do not teach you to think.
Computer education imparts technical skills;
It does not impart knowledge.
John Rosemond
Not all the information that exists in
the world is on the Internet--
Not all the information that is on the
Internet is accurate.
Mrs. Kotsch
An hour on the Web may
not answer a question that
you could find within two
minutes of picking up a
reference book.
Getting Started Searching
URLs
Searching techniques
Search engines
URLs
Uniform Resource Locator
The web address that connects you with a website
Goes in the address bar at the top of the screen
Gives you information about the website
Parts of a URL
http://www.starwars.com/seminars.html

http://--hypertext transfer protocol:
the language computers use to talk to one another
wwwworld wide web:
the body of information connected by the cables and computers of the Internet
.starwarsdomain name:
the structured, alphabetic-based, unique name for a computer on a network
.comtop level domain:
gives an idea of where the document is stored
/seminarsfile name:
a folder within a website
.htmlhypertext markup language:
the computer language used to format documents



Top Level Domains
.eduhigher education
.k-12elementary and secondary schools
.comcommercial
.govgovernment agency
.milmilitary
.orggeneral noncommercial organization
.netcomputer network

Who Pays For The Internet?
Advertisers pay for Internet websites.
Popups and banners are trying to influence your spending habits.
The information on commercial sites--.commay be presented in such a
way as to encourage you to buy a particular product.
Be wary of URLs with a ~ in the addressthis indicates a personal
homepage and does not guarnantee accuracy.
How Do You Find What You Need?
Libraries and department stores are planned.
No one is in charge of organizing the Internet.
Well-prepared searches will eliminate useless hits and
wasted time.
Before you search, you need to:
Prepare
Organize
Combine
Prepare
What do you need to know about your topic?
Make a list of all the terms connected with your topic.
Include names, organizations, and phrases.

Organize
Make a list of the words that are critical to your search.
Note terms that you dont want to see appear.
Discard the rest.
For example
If you are looking for information about life on the planet Mars, you
dont want sites popping up about the Roman god of war.
Put that in your list of words you dont want to see.
What other words might be connected with your topic that will send you to
useless sites?
Combine
Use Boolean operators to combine your most
important terms.

Use AND to connect the terms you want to see.
Use NOT to exclude terms you dont want.
Use OR to include similar terms.
Use quotation marks around names or phrases
Use lower case for all proper nouns, except for acronyms

For example
mars AND planet AND life NOT god

But what if
you WERE looking for information about the Roman god of war?
The Greeks referred to him as Ares, so now your search will look
like this.
mars OR ares AND god of war
Notice the quotation marks around the phrase god of war
What Do You Use To Search?
Search engines
Search directories
Metasearchers
Search Engines
Are like the index in the back of a book
Let you search for specific words and topics
Use robots known as spiders to search for
information.
Examples:
Alta Vista
Excite
Hotbot
Infoseek
Search Directories--
Are like the table of contents
in front of a book
Let you search for concepts or subject
categories
Go from general to specific.
Sites are added by people.
Examples:
Internet Public Library

Instead of looking through the
categories in a search directory, you
can put in your terms in their search
bar, but it will only look through the
sites that have been included within
that directorynot the entire web,
unless indicated.
Metasearchers--
Sends your search terms to several other search
engines at once.
Gives an overview of a topic across the Internet.
Examples:
Profusion
Dogpile
Metacrawler
Remember.
Hits are returned and ranked according to--
How many times terms appear on the page
How often terms appear
How close terms are to each other
How near the top of the page the terms are found

The best results will appear on the first page or
two of hits
No two search engines are alike. Try another
search engine, or rephrase your terms if you
dont get good results.




More Searching Help--
7 Steps to Better Searching
Evaluating Websites
Let the buyer beware




Book publishers weed out inaccurate information.
No one checks the Internet for accuracy.
EVALUATE!
Before you start using the
information--
Who is the author?
Is he an authority on the subject?
Does she have an e-mail address?
Is the information accurate?
Can it be verified in an encyclopedia?
Is it relevant to your topic?
Does the author indicate where he found the
information?


Is the information prejudiced?
Is it trying to persuade you to another point of view?
Is it trying to persuade you to buy a product?

Is the information current?
When was the last time the website was updated?
Are the links broken?
Evaluation Website
Quality Information Checklist
Benefits of Colloidal Silver
Burger King Introduces
Copyright Issues
What can you copy?
Give credit to what you have used.
Copyright
Is the legal right of an author or artist to control the
copying and use of their creative works.
Taking something without permission is theft, including
text and pictures from the Internet.
Using someone elses words without giving credit is
called plagiarism.
Fair Use concept lets teachers and students use
portions of copyrighted works without permission.



What is protected by copyright?
Literary works
Computer software
Musical works
Dramatic works
Motion pictures
Sound recordings
Before you copy, check the Fair
Use Guidelines:
Am I using this for a nonprofit, educational
purpose?
Am I only using a small portion?
Will the creator be deprived of future profits?
What can students copy?
A single , hard copy for personal or educational use.
Limited amounts of websites.
Copies cannot be used for public or commercial use.
Students must cite the source of their information.
For multi-media projects:
Video clips10% or three minutes
Music10% but no more than 30 seconds.
Text10% or 1000 words

For copyright help, refer to:
The diocesan copyright policy
COPYRIGHT FOR SCHOOLS, by Carol Simpson
Copyright Bay
Copyright Kids
Cyberbee Copyright
Citing a website
Last name, first name of author.
If there is no author listed, begin with the title.
Title of article within the website.
Put quote marks around the title
Name of website.
Underline the name
Date article was written.
Put the date first, then abbreviate the month.
Date you accessed the article.
URL.
If the URL wont fit on one line, break it at a slash. Include the entire URL, not just the one for the home page.

More Help For Works Cited:
MLA Style
Citation Machine
Example:
Adams, Joyce. How Vatican II changed the face of the
Catholic Church. Catholic News Service. 2 Sept. 2003.
13 Oct. 2003 <http://www.catholicnews.net/
vatican.html> .



Staying Safe On-line
Dont give out personal information.
(phone number, address, pictures)
Use Christian courtesy in e-mails and chat rooms.
Dont arrange to meet with someone from online
without telling your parents.
Do tell your parents about inappropriate websites that
you run across.
Be careful what you post in a public forum.
*


Remember:
You leave electronic footprints wherever you
go on the web.
Works Cited
Books
Jones, Debra. Exploring the Internet. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers,
Inc., 1999.
Simpson, Carol, and McElmeel, Sharron L. Internet for Schools: A Practical
Guide, 3
rd
ed. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing,Inc., 2000.

Websites
Adams, Helen, and Beyers, Catherine. Lesson 2: Finding
Information on the Internet. American Library Association. Dec.
15, 2003.
<http://www.ala.org/cfapps/archive.cfm?path=ICONNfclesson2.ht
ml>.


Dodge, Bernie. Seven Steps to Better Searching. San Diego State
University College of Education. July 8, 1999. 15 Nov.
2001.<http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/searching/
sevensteps.htm.>
Knowledge is power.
Librarians Rule.